The pledge to overhaul house building and build a million homes will be the centrepiece of Labour’s manifesto at the next election.
Labour also wants to harness the potential of hundreds of smaller house builders to crank up delivery rates across the country.
He said Labour would set up "rebuilding Britain commission", which would be responsible for an increase in house building and the creation of a new generation of garden cities and new towns.
The commission, led by former BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons, would work with councils to identify sites for new towns and prepare a legislative framework for Labour to start building immediately if it wins the 2015 general election.
Miliband said: “We'll say to local authorities that they have a right to grow, we'll identify new towns and garden cities and we'll have an aim that at the end of the parliament Britain will be building 200,000 homes a year, more than at any time in a generation.“
He argued that a shortage of housing was central to Britain's “cost of living crisis", leaving millions of working people unable to afford the homes they want.
Developers that sit on land banks will be forced into action by a use it or lose it law.
It will look at stronger compulsory purchase powers for councils to buy and grant planning permission on landbanked sites that are impeding development.
Councils could also be given fresh power to charge developers incrementally rising fees for not building out site with planning.
Shadow housing secretary Jack Dromey earlier in the week said there was no magic bullet to solving the housing crisis.
He said the house building push would be driven by closer partnerships between councils, housing association and volume and crucially smaller house builders.
Dromey said two thirds of the homes built used to be by SMEs, but now that had dropped to just one third.
Mike Leonard, spokesman for the Get Britain Building campaign, welcomed Labour’s pledge to give house building a real boost.
He said: “We are delighted that Labour have risen to the Get Britain Building Challenge we launched four years ago.
“To make this to really work, creating jobs and growth, it must involve a strategic commitment to involve SME's and use British made building materials.”
